AMus_E013406

Title: A message stick held in the Australian Museum

Description: Message or letter stick [ref reg]; Message stick [ref LC] Flat, oblong, squared ends. Incised with horizontal lines at irregular intervals [ref LC]; Condition: complete. Mould [ref LC].

Creator of Object: Mus pdf from 24.01.2023: "Maker: Morehead River boy, Cooktown [ref LC]; Message or letter stick (made by boy, see E.13400 (no. 33) [ref reg];"

Date Created: 1898

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: QLD

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Morehead River, Cooktown, Cape York, Queensland, Australia. AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "REGION: Cape York; Cooktown [ref reg]; Cooktown, Queensland [ref LC]"

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: ku ("ku")

Dimension 1: 105mm Dimension 2: 23mm Dimension 3: 7mm

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: 1898 Accession date: 24 March 1905

Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E013406

Collector: Purchased by: Roth, Dr Walter Edmund

Coordinates: 15°28'33.398400"S,145°14'45.099600"E  (-15.475944, 145.245861)

Media copyright: The Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Coordinates for Cooktown, Queensland, per Google maps

URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=3433&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FAdvQuery.php&highlight_term=

Notes: REGISTER

Date: 24 March 1905

Name or Description: Message or letter stick (made by a boy; see E13400 (no. 33))

Locality: ​x​xxxxxx

How Acquired: Purch.

Name of Donor or Seller: Dr. W. E. Roth

Estimated or Market Value: S.​39

Destination: Figs. Bull. 8. Pl. 1. F1 negative v. 2340

Remarks:

OTHER NOTES

Roth, Walter E. 1905. North Queensland ethnography. Bulletin no. 8: Notes on government, morals, and crime. Brisbane: Government Printer.: Plate I. Fig. 1.—Oblong, flattened or compressed, slightly bi-convex, feather-edged, section long-oval, ends truncate; dark wood. Both faces bear a series of sixteen transverse incisions, leaving a central plan panel bearing a Greek cross. Length, 4 in.; width, 1 in. Ku, made by a Morehead river boy.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Nitzan Rotman